Śānti Pataḥ – Saha Nāvavatu with Translation

Śānti Pataḥ – Saha Nāvavatu with Translation

I have been teaching a Practitioner Training Group this weekend with a textual focus around the teachings of the Upaniṣat, especially the Taittirīya Upaniṣat Chapters 2 and 3.

Traditionally textual study or chanting practice was preceded and ended with a Śānti Pataḥ or invocatory passage to help forge a link between the chanters, what is chanted and its purport, as well as setting a context for textual study.

So it felt appropriate to include Saha Nāvavatu for our study together, as it is the opening invocation for the Taittirīya Upaniṣat Chapters 2 and 3, as well as for other Upaniṣat such as the Kaṭha and the Nārāyaṇa Upaniṣat.

This chant is where the teacher and the pupil chant together asking for harmonious co-operation within a context of keen and vigorous exploration of what is and especially what isn’t the self and the non-self. A topic fraught with potential resistances and self-illusion.

saha nāvavatu |
Together may we be protected

saha nau bhunaktu |
Together may we enjoy our studies

saha vīryaṃ karavāvahai |
Together may we work vigorously

tejasvi nāvadhītamastu mā vidviṣāvahai ||
Let our study together be fiery (to illuminate) and
(because of this) may we not hate (each other).

om śāntiḥ śāntiḥ śāntiḥ ||

View or download this post with a translation plus Chant Notations in Devanāgarī and Romanised Saṃskṛta.

To Download or Listen to a recordingFrom my personal library of recordings from my studies with my teacher TKV Desikachar recorded by one of his senior chant students Sujaya Sridhar.